Food product slicers having circular slicer knives are commonly used in restaurant and grocery businesses, among others. The use of slicer mounted knife sharpening assemblies to sharpen the peripheral edge of the slicer knife when necessary is also known. Protecting the edge of the knife along non-cutting zone regions of the knife is desirable as demonstrated by the common use of a ring guard disposed about a portion of the knife cutting edge to protect the edge of the knife. Because most ring guards are mounted in a manner to prevent removal by the end user in order to assure the knife protecting function, the ring guard cannot be positioned along the edge of the knife in the region where knife sharpening occurs, as doing so would interfere with knife sharpening. It would be desirable to provide a food product slicer that includes a knife guard member in association with the knife sharpener.